In the digital world, you don’t get brand awareness and revenue by resting on your laurels. Competitors are innovating around you, and you know that success today means having prime SERP real estate and top ranking web content. But can the formula for online domination really be as simple as website optimization and consistent content creation?

The answer is both yes and no.

A company’s marketing campaign must be offering special insights and speak directly to customers’ needs to topple industry leaders in the scramble for leading search spots. However, there is proof that brands start to see the SEO needle move when they begin creating consistent content.

There’s a common metaphor in SEO that likens paid campaigns to starting a fire by igniting lighter fluid and content marketing to building a dense base of kindling. One gives you fast results that fade once the fuel is gone, while the other takes longer to build but burns much longer. In that case of one Brafton client, however, those first smoke signals of results didn’t take long to appear.

Within a month of launching a content strategy, the number of indexed website pages increased 13 percent. This means search crawlers from Google and other engines are coming back to the site to add new keyword-optimized content to their indexes but this, in itself, doesn’t help SEO. As Google has said, more pages don’t mean better rankings: More useful pages, however, can help build site authority.

14 percent more traffic, visitors and impressions

Content analytics reports show the site was successful in bringing in more prospects. The company’s website traffic increased over 14 percent in the course of a month. While the addition of new content gives people a reason to return for updates, the news content strategy also brought in 13.5 percent more unique visitors thereby expanding awareness and reach.

The company’s website traffic increased over 14 percent in the course of a month.

At the same time, the number of pageviews increased 14 percent and visitors spent slightly longer on the site, with average sessions lasting a little over 2 percent longer.

Of course, that first heat wave and those initial successes must be fueled with smart strategies and high-quality content to rise to the top of rankings. Companies that create memorable and valuable content will, over time, emerge from the pack as market leaders and dominate search results.

Lauren Kaye

Lauren Kaye is a Marketing Editor at Brafton Inc. She studied creative and technical writing at Virginia Tech before pursuing the digital frontier and finding content marketing was the best place to put her passions to work. Lauren also writes creative short fiction, hikes in New England and appreciates a good book recommendation.